The Lagaya meridian therapy: Health without medicine

The Lagaya meridian therapy (LMT), a combination of Chinese and Filipino healing techniques, is an integrated system of bringing the body to health without the use of drugs or medicines.

It is the first Filipino-Chinese healing method which combines the healing arts of Filipino folk healers and the principles behind traditional Chinese acupuncture and acupressure, enhanced by pranic energy healing.

LMT employs computer-aided traditional Chinese medicine diagnosis, which provides a complete assessment of body energies and the state of the meridian of the vital organs. The diagnosis is amazingly accurate, as discovered by a patient who, for several years, had been quietly suffering numerous aches and pains in various parts of her body.

The Lagaya meridian therapy was developed by Dr. Alfonso T. Lagaya while he was the director general of the Department of Health’s Philippine Institute of Traditional and Alternative Health Care (PITAHC). He has since moved on to become a director of the American Academy of Family Medicine and a volunteer clinician of the World Health Organization (WHO)-Western Pacific Regional Office. He is also the medical director of Living Life Well Medical Spa and Complementary/Alternative Medicine Clinic in Makati. He conducts research, clinics, and training for physicians and other professionals on the Lagaya meridian therapy. He works closely with Carmelina "Lyn" Marcelo-Castro, president of Living Life Well Clinic.

Lyn, a dynamic and articulate financial consultant in her mid-40s, recalls how she and Dr. Lagaya put up the clinic. The project was providential. It started when Vivian Que-Azcuna, president of Mercury Drug, asked Lyn to relocate the school for caregivers to the second floor of the Mercury building at Glorietta 3. But Lyn suggested alternative medicine. When Mrs. Azcuna agreed, Lyn went to PITAHC. She met up with Dr. Lagaya in September 2004 and they discussed the plan. She brought him to present the project to Mercury Drug. By December 18, 2004, the Living Life Well Clinic opened on an 88- square meter area on the third floor of the Mercury Drug building. Everything just fell into place.

What struck Lyn most about Mercury Drug’s support for the project was the nobility of spirit of Mariano Que, chairman of Mercury Drug, who said, "What’s important is that people get well. It doesn’t mean that they have to buy drugs."

Living Life Well Clinic is a cool cocoon of natural healing. The interiors are done in natural materials – bamboo, wood, capiz shells, canvas, rattan and, yes, water gurgling happily in a symphony of creativity. The spa is embraced by the soothing rhythm of the Gregorian chant. Salt ionizer lamps cast their warm glow on the walls, parabolas of color in the dimly-lit spa.

The Living Life Well Medical Spa offers medical acupressure, a quick relief for aches and pains, medical acupuncture on specific meridian points with additional acupressure, Lagaya meridian therapy, which includes Filipino-Chinese healing therapy, crystal pranic energy healing, and therapeutic herbal footbath. It also applies BEES (Body Energy Electromagnetic Synchronizer) therapy. The cost of treatment starts from P500 up.

For medical checkup, the clinic offers patients three choices: a medical consultation with a 10-minute pain relief acupressure, a computer-aided traditional Chinese medicine diagnosis, Dr. Lagaya’s ARDK (Automatic Reflective Diagnostic Kinetic) version, or a medical consultation plus ARDK and a 10-minute acupressure.

Those who prefer a wellness package can choose between the two-hour complete treatment package and the one-hour treatment package. The complete treatment package consists of a medical consultation, the Lagaya ARDK testing and interpretation, and Dr. Lagaya’s meridian therapy. The one-hour treatment package involves a medical consultation, the Lagaya ARDK testing and interpretation, and 30-minute acupuncture and acupressure.

The Lagaya meridian therapy relieves back pains, migraine, headaches, scoliosis, arthritic pains, anxiety, nervousness, fatigue, insomnia, sinusitis, stiff neck, and sciatica. It also corrects organ disorders such as asthma, hypertension, constipation, diarrhea, irritable bowel syndrome, gastritis, ulcers, infertility, impotence, hormonal imbalance, and addiction.

The clinic also offers complementary-alternative medical services such as detoxification and nutritional therapy for cases of infertility, menopause, ovarian cysts, breast mass, uterine myoma, dysmenorrhea and infections, as well as complementary cancer management for breast, lung, brain, liver, lymphatic, gastro-intestinal, prostate, cervical and uterine cancer, and leukemia.

A visit to the Living Life Well Medical Clinic starts with a computer-aided traditional Chinese medicine diagnosis, Dr. Lagaya’s ARDK Health Monitoring System version. It shows the location of the patient’s pain by body quadrants and muskulo-skeletal weakness. Dr. Lagaya pilot-tested his version at the WHO office. ARDK involves the use of a probe which the patient holds in her left hand. A medical assistant manipulates the other end of the probe, applying it in the patient’s hands and feet meridians. As he does so, the red dot on the computer screen also moves on the model hands and feet illustrations. The probe is from Taiwan and the software is Dr. Lagaya’s version of the traditional Chinese medicine diagnosis. ARDK is by subscription and the data bank is in Taiwan.

After the five-minute diagnosis, the data are sent to Taiwan through the Internet. While the patient waits for the result, he is served a tea called blood tonic which cleanses the blood. The result arrives after five to 10 minutes. The patient goes to Dr. Lagaya for the interpretation of the data. Dr. Lagaya, a UST graduate of Medicine and Surgery, is 46 years old, but he looks 35, probably because he practices what he preaches. He has a bright, healing aura and a happy, glowing face. He is cheerful, friendly, and grounded. He is married to Jennifer Tesoro, a nurse working in South Carolina. She has asked him to join her there, but Dr. Lagaya feels he can do more good here. They have three children – two boys and one girl.

Before he reveals the result of the diagnosis, Dr. Lagaya explains the theory of the elements – fire, earth, metal, water, and wood, which compose the human body. He says that in the human body, in life, it is just a matter of balance of the elements. The organs of the body are governed by the elements. For example, fire governs the heart (which represents the brain), the small intestine, the pericardium (the real organic heart), the sanjiao, which represents the triple warmer or the body metabolism. Earth rules the spleen, the pancreas and the stomach. Metal controls the lungs and the large intestine. Water governs the kidneys and the urinary bladder while wood controls the gall bladder and the liver.

The Chinese explains the interrelationship of the elements in terms of agriculture so that people can easily understand it. Dr. Lagaya paraphrases it this way: "The higher the fire is, the more energy will nourish the earth, and that goes on from earth to metal to water to wood and to fire. It is a cycle. The Chinese interpreted it this way: If you burn enough material to nourish the fire, there will be more ashes and if you have a lot of earth (represented by ashes), and you start mining, the more area of the earth you mine, the more metal (copper, diamonds, etc.) you get. If you have a lot of metal and you melt these, they become liquid or water; and if you have a lot of water, you will be able to nourish more plants (wood) and if you have a lot of wood, you have more to make fire."

"This is the positive feedback mechanism, but purely positive feedback is not healthy. You should also have a negative feedback. If you have a lot of fire, you will melt metal, which is good. Metal chops wood (lungs and large intestine), it regulates the functions of the liver and the gall bladder. Wood, represented by the trees or roots of the trees, are digging into earth, so hindi tumutubo ang bangketa ’pag may puno. The wood (liver and gall bladder) controls the spleen, pancreas, and stomach. Earth controls water (kidneys, urinary bladder, and also, generally, the reproductive organs) and then the kidneys, urinary bladder and reproductive organs control the organs of the fire (heart, small intestine, pericardium, and triple warmer or body metabolism)."

Dr. Lagaya draws a pentagon – a five-pointed star within a circle, just like a Christmas parol. Each point of the star represents one of the elements. The star is drawn in red, representing the negative feedback and the circle is drawn in black, for positive feedback.

Health means a balance between the positive and negative feedback. Imbalance or disharmony causes diseases. Living Life Well Medical Clinic (tel. no. 816-4733) exists to correct the imbalance before it breeds ailments.